April: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month

Kelly Lee Owens 'Kelly Lee Owens' (Smalltown Supersound)

Kelly Lee Owens asserts herself with a stunning debut LP on Oslo label Smalltown Supersound. The self-titled record flirts with several club-oriented ideas, but the songs veer smoothly from string-soaked pop to contained house and resolute techno. Her previous work – namely her ‘Oleic’ EP from last year and her collaboration with Daniel Avery on his 2014 album ‘Drone Logic’ – gave us a taste of her ability to infuse tightly controlled basslines with melodic overtones, but here, she finally gets the chance to showcase her versatility and immense production talent. The album starts off slowly with ‘SO’ before gradually picking up speed with the help of pulsating kicks. ‘Bird’ juxtaposes skittering hi-hats and a distorted low-end with a sunny marimba tune, while ‘Keep Walking’ is a soaring dream-pop masterpiece with Owens’ impressive vocals.

9/10

Botaz 'Un Amor Como La Iluvia' (TAR)

Californian producer Botaz returns with a dynamic two-track single on TAR, the Los Angeles label who’ve been putting out some of the most exciting club music of the moment. With previous releases on labels such as Heat Records and Big Sigh Brat Club, Botaz’s original tracks and bootlegs allow for spaced-out ruminations in the dance. ‘Un Amor Como La Iluvia’ is an ambitious statement, swelling gracefully at both ends, with ethereal synths climbing to lofty heights and a driving bass grounding the track.

8/10

Scintii 'Mica' (Eternal Dragonz)

Global artist collective Eternal Dragonz’s first musical release comes from Taipei-via-London producer Scintii. Her debut record, ‘Mica’, is inspired by minerals: there are lots of fissures in the music, with shifting rhythms that suggest there’s more to the picture than meets the eye when dealing with the finished product.

On opener ‘Et,’ metallic structures arc icily over woozy hi-hats, while the title track finds Scintii using her vocals as both the melodic line and percussive punctuation, with a quick succession of smooth beeps gently pushing the song along. Lead single ‘Papier’ brings to mind such contemporary references as London’s Bala Club or Berlin producer Mind:Body:Fitness, with a dembow beat and slightly warped vocals over frosty soundscapes. Scintii’s background in studying both studio composition and pop music comes through nicely – she’s one of many experimental club artists infusing well-known motifs with a sinister edge, shaking up the dancefloor and opening up promising opportunities for the blurring of genres.

7/10

Astrid Gnosis 'Agnosis music/is/for/losers' (High Drama)

On her debut release, visual sound artist Astrid Gnosis explores maximalism in both sonic and sentimental capacities. Tracks such as ‘Troll’ and ‘Severe Delays’ orbit hypnotically around you, with stabbing kicks and Gnosis’s vocals whirring above the melody. Individual songs contain many parts and play with time and pacing, which makes sense given that Gnosis has suggested the record is potentially about a dystopian picture of the future. The last three tracks are huge, pressurised techno, augmented by crooning vocals dripping with suspense. Closer ‘Titan’ is the most compelling track on the record: over commanding, harsh vocals, a bassline emerges while gnashing synths scream. As the track plays out she spits, “I’m in this for the kick,” punning cheekily while summing up the EP’s entire ethos

7/10

Herva 'Hyper Flux' (Planet Mu)

Italian producer Herva returns with his second Planet Mu release of cut-up, jumpy house. Of his previous work, ‘Hyper Flux’ draws the most similarities to 2015’s ‘Kila’, but the new record finds him working with lots of live instruments – there are all sorts of bleeps and bloops, but there’s also fuzzy lo-fi ambience and explorations of various other spacey themes. The album opens with glitchy percussive ticks, but quickly warms up. ‘Nasty MF’ pairs glistening bells with a choppy house rhythm that get steadily more heated as the song progresses.

The deep grooves of ‘Lly Spirals’ reorient a light, fast-paced beat that sounds like a car cruising down some suspended highway, while ‘Meta Wave’ utilises a sound that’s reminiscent of neon burning in a strip mall, amidst clear, flutey soundscapes and more scratchy textures. You hear a lot about ‘futuristic’ bass music nowadays, and many visions of what’s to come club-wise seem dark and dissonant, but Herva manages to take the discord and put more of an optimistic spin on it.

8/10

Doon Kanda 'Heart' (Hyperdub)

Jesse Kanda, the prolific artist and Arca collaborator, finds a home for his first musical release on Hyperdub under the name Doon Kanda. The label is known for creating its own definition of club music that effortlessly ties in leftfield experimental sounds and stylings, so it’s a fitting match for Kanda, whose distinctive videos and sculptures defy any genres or boundaries.

‘Heart’ is bright and mostly upbeat, but blisteringly so, like fresh snow in direct sunlight. Album opener ‘Axolotl’, Kanda says, is “like a chant for giving it your best try”; the melodies grind together but are nevertheless inspiring and sound like a much-improved Crystal Castles beat. Mid-record cut ‘Wings’ shifts vantage points with gorgeous instrumental echoes, a sonic carnival that has the potential to sound menacing but feels genuine in its oddness. ‘Feline’ paces back and forth like a trapped animal, but in the time signature of a waltz – like Kanda’s art, it’s exquisite but innately jarring.

8/10

W3C 'State Of Absolute Alienation' (Infinite Machine)

On his first record for Montreal label Infinite Machine, Latvian producer W3C approaches the club in a different way than he has before. Though his 2015 EP on Pinch’s Cold Recordings was also a master class in large-scale, industrial techno, ‘State Of Absolute Alienation’ finds him exploring that same style even further. ‘Xenotrak’ takes a trance influence and ramps it up beyond the parameters of your everyday rave; it’s unapologetic, massive and blunt in scope, with craggy percussive layers building on top of one another.

‘Short Circuit’ works around a grimy squarewave, but that sound is only one of many significant pieces as synths growl and crash. Just when you think it can’t get any more disorienting, there’s an iteration of the dissonant strings from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The record doesn’t sound scary, though, so much as intimidating. It’s sci-fi, grime, techno and various industrial snarls all at once; it’s a record that embodies the spirit of the most brutal warehouse party you’ve ever been to, but in space.

9/10

Nina Posner is Mixmag's bass & club editor, follow her on Twitter